A Garveyite's commmentary on world events and other stuff. (10 years of informed commentary)

Days Black People Not Re-Enslaved By Trump

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Grammar Police Mangle Trump's Statement, Alarm Ensues

While ignoring actual factual violence against persons who at a minimum appear to be Trump supporters, the MSM and just about every Democrat leaning talking head has made the claim that Trump made a threat against Hillary Clinton when he said the following:

"Hillary wants to abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. But the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know."

Had this been a prepared speech, delivered to the letter rather than the usual Trump speaking extemporaneously as he habitually does, one could understand some level of concern. I say some level because we should take any apparent call for political violence very seriously. However since there is a concerted effort by Republicrats and their water carrying boys and girls in the MSM to smear trump as badly and as often as possible, level headed thinking is nigh impossible. Let me explain how this statement is truly supposed to be taken given who gave it and the usual way that he speaks:

Hillary wants to abolish the Second Amendment.

This is an assertion. It is the assertion that is the theme of the statements.

By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks

This is the "mechanics" of how his assertion would get done. The claim here is that if Clinton gets her judges on the bench, supposedly those that agree with getting rid of the Second Amendment, then there is nothing you can do, folks. Now in order to actually "abolish" the Second Amendment, there would need to be an act of Congress as required by the constitution, but the implication here is that abolition would occur by means of increasingly restrictive laws that would make ownership too onerous to exercise.

But the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know

The "But" here implies that he's returning to the original assertion of Hillary Clinton wanting to abolish the Second Amendment. The statement between these, the "by the way" was an aside from his main point of abolition.

So what he's actually saying here is: "But back to the Second Amendment, people, maybe there is [something you can do] but I don't know [it looks bad]." Note that I put a comma after "Amendment". This is important because it separates the "people" from the "Second Amendment". "People is used like "folks"

What the media has willfully injected a "you could kill her" as the "something you can do". But that speaks more to the actual mindset of those opposed to Trump than to Trump's own mindset. Again, 99% of the political violence that has occurred this election season has been directed at Trump's supporters by Hillary and Sanders supporters, some of whom are not even legal residents of the US.
Now I know that the spokespersons are trying to say that Trump meant that the "second amendment people" as in "NRA types" can "maybe do something" like vote in a block. I think they are mistaken in this "interpretation" and are doing so because it's an easy thing to explain to the public, than explaining the grammatical issue of the quote and how you deal with a person making extemporaneous commentary.